The SADCSTAN Executive Committee held its second meeting from 16-18 January 2006 at the new and prestigious building of the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) in Gaborone, Botswana. The 3-day meeting was attended by all the Executive Committee members including observers from Physikalisch – Technische Bundesanstalt PTB Germany and BOBS. The purpose of the meeting was to amongst other issues:
- Monitor progress in the implementation of resolutions from the last SADCSTAN annual meeting;
- Prepare for the 9 th SADCSTAN Annual meeting to be held in Windhoek, Namibia in April 2006; and
- Consider reports and recommendations from the various workshops and study visit undertaken in 2005
and comments received from members on the draft TBT Annexe to the SADC Protocol on Trade.
SADCSTAN is the sole body mandated by the SADC Council of Ministries to coordinate standardization activities and services in the region with the purpose of achieving harmonization of standards and technical regulations except legal metrology regulations. SADCSTAN was established in 1992 and is one of the 5 structures established to implement the SADC programme on standardization, quality assurance, accreditation and metrology (SQAM) whose objectives are to progressively eliminate technical barriers to trade and to promote quality.
Since its establishment, SADCSTAN has harmonized more than 50 standards texts covering the following products/areas: common and masonry cements, tyres, electrical installation, safety signs in buildings, quality management standards, conformity assessment and metrology.
The SADCSTAN Executive Committee was established in 2005 and consists of Zimbabwe (Mrs Maureen P Mutasa – Chairperson), Mozambique (Mrs Gabriela da Silva – Vice Chairperson), Botswana (Mr A Napinda), Lesotho (Mr T Makhoro) with Standards South Africa (Mr Donald Masuku as the Regional Coordinator and Head of SADCSTAN Secretariat).
Speaking at the end of the 2 nd Executive Committee meeting, Mrs Mutasa said that it had been a busy and intense 3-days’ meeting during which we have accomplished what we set out to do. She thanked the BOBS for the excellent venue and arrangements conducive to fruitful deliberations and PTB for sponsoring the delegates attendance costs. The ninth SADCSTAN annual meeting will be held on 6 April 2006 in Windhoek, Namibia. Arrangements for the meeting are well underway. A 2½-hour seminar on the newly published ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System is also being organized to be held in conjunction with the SADCSTAN meeting:
Donald Masuku
Regional Coordinator
SADCSTAN Secretariat
Tel: +27 12 428 6400
Email: masukugd@sabs.co.za
Website: www.sadcstan.co.za
